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CG rating |
The Bad
- Addictive gameplay
- The damage system
- Spectacular stunts
- Combative AI
- Incredible sense of speed
- Dull soundtrack
- Only split-screen multiplayer
- Limited number of tracks
Review
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Unlike its competitors, the small Nintendo Wii console doesn’t have enough processing power to fight the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 on the graphics battlefield. Because of this, any designer who wants to create a game for Nintendo’s wonder box must bet everything on the fun that the game offers, something that seems to have completely slipped the mind of PC producers, for instance. If we were to quote, Excite Truck is the spiritual successor of Excitebike and Excitebike 64, games released many years ago. However, if we dig some more, we learn that Excite Truck is a combination of Rollcage, Destruction Derby and Burnout...with 4x4s. In theory, at least.
Even though console games are based on the „insert disk and play” principle, the designers from Monster Games took the decision to not let you race until you finish half of the practice levels. Here you learn how to use the famous Wiimote, because you don’t have to hold it as a remote anymore, but as a classic gamepad, which controls the car by tilting it. At the beginning you’re going to be pretty sceptical about the control scheme, having the impression that you’re going to go off track in a blink, but you’ll slowly pluck up courage, mainly because the car reacts perfectly to your movements, in a progressive and immediate way. You activate the acceleration, the brakes and the boost by pressing the buttons on your remote, so there’s nothing special about it.
But, when you jump, you can control the front-rear tilt: by lowering your Wiimote, the front of your car will go down, or vice versa when you tilt the Wiimote up. Or, if the jump is long enough, after “gliding” for some time, you can even try steering. The curve described by the car in the air is negligible, but on many occasions it will help you find the perfect racing line. Now, maybe you’re wondering how these aerial movements are going to help you. For example, if you land on all four wheels simultaneously, the car will gain extra speed, which is high enough to make a difference, or even better, it will help you avoid the trees that you were just about to crash into.
However, in order to reach impressive speeds you have to use the Boost, which cannot be activated all the time because it overheats the engine and the smoke it creates will seriously hamper visibility. Worse than that, this will also make it impossible to use, at least until the engine cools down. Next you’ll find out that you’re not jumping high enough, so it's about time you start... picking some power-ups along the way that change the terrain on-the-fly, making your jumps so high that you can now fly even over ships or entire forests.
The second part of the tutorial explains what rewards you get if you make your race more interesting. Drifts, longer gliding time, the possibility to drive close to the trees or even through them, going through rings that appear when you activate the power-ups you find along the way, catapulting your opponents into the air by modifying the terrain at the exact right time, multiple consecutive jumps, destroying or smashing opponents cars, finishing first, even destroying your own car, for all these are things you will get stars that pile up until the end of the race, and that will turn into a grade. The most you can get is S and the least is D.
After a while, the tutorial gets difficult and frustrating and the lack of an indicator telling you that when you reach 50% of the tutorial you can quit is a negative point for the game. Actually, I think it's about the only negative thing I can say, indirectly, about the interface. The menu is impeccable and accessible and will even try to anticipate your next move by selecting your best probable option. For instance, when you finish a race where you didn’t manage to score enough points, the game will automatically select “Restart race” or, if you did well, “Next race”. The races are divided into levels, with each championship having four or five tracks. You can complete the races in any order; the only necessary requirement for unlocking the next championship is to accumulate a certain number of points for each track.
Even though console games are based on the „insert disk and play” principle, the designers from Monster Games took the decision to not let you race until you finish half of the practice levels. Here you learn how to use the famous Wiimote, because you don’t have to hold it as a remote anymore, but as a classic gamepad, which controls the car by tilting it. At the beginning you’re going to be pretty sceptical about the control scheme, having the impression that you’re going to go off track in a blink, but you’ll slowly pluck up courage, mainly because the car reacts perfectly to your movements, in a progressive and immediate way. You activate the acceleration, the brakes and the boost by pressing the buttons on your remote, so there’s nothing special about it.
But, when you jump, you can control the front-rear tilt: by lowering your Wiimote, the front of your car will go down, or vice versa when you tilt the Wiimote up. Or, if the jump is long enough, after “gliding” for some time, you can even try steering. The curve described by the car in the air is negligible, but on many occasions it will help you find the perfect racing line. Now, maybe you’re wondering how these aerial movements are going to help you. For example, if you land on all four wheels simultaneously, the car will gain extra speed, which is high enough to make a difference, or even better, it will help you avoid the trees that you were just about to crash into.
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However, in order to reach impressive speeds you have to use the Boost, which cannot be activated all the time because it overheats the engine and the smoke it creates will seriously hamper visibility. Worse than that, this will also make it impossible to use, at least until the engine cools down. Next you’ll find out that you’re not jumping high enough, so it's about time you start... picking some power-ups along the way that change the terrain on-the-fly, making your jumps so high that you can now fly even over ships or entire forests.
The second part of the tutorial explains what rewards you get if you make your race more interesting. Drifts, longer gliding time, the possibility to drive close to the trees or even through them, going through rings that appear when you activate the power-ups you find along the way, catapulting your opponents into the air by modifying the terrain at the exact right time, multiple consecutive jumps, destroying or smashing opponents cars, finishing first, even destroying your own car, for all these are things you will get stars that pile up until the end of the race, and that will turn into a grade. The most you can get is S and the least is D.
After a while, the tutorial gets difficult and frustrating and the lack of an indicator telling you that when you reach 50% of the tutorial you can quit is a negative point for the game. Actually, I think it's about the only negative thing I can say, indirectly, about the interface. The menu is impeccable and accessible and will even try to anticipate your next move by selecting your best probable option. For instance, when you finish a race where you didn’t manage to score enough points, the game will automatically select “Restart race” or, if you did well, “Next race”. The races are divided into levels, with each championship having four or five tracks. You can complete the races in any order; the only necessary requirement for unlocking the next championship is to accumulate a certain number of points for each track.
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